McLaren Sacked (+ his reaction)

Steve McLaren has been sacked as manager of England after last night insisting he would not resign after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008.
McLaren has been sacked by the FA just hours after telling a press conference that he would not walk away from his England job despite the disappointment of failing to qualify for a major final for the first time since 1994’s World Cup in the USA.
The FA had no option but to sack McLaren after the 3-2 defeat last night rendered his job untenable.
Early favourites are Jose Mourinho (who is likelier to take a club job, although the salary involved would be astronomical), Fabio Capello (who has already said he’d like the job-talk about enthusiastic!) and Martin O’Neill who will be linked with the England job every time it becomes available over the next hundred years.
O’Neill has already said he’s not interested though that is unlikely to quell the speculation given that O’Neill is favoured by members of the FA and the general public who see him as the man to whip a generation of under-achievers into shape.

McLaren gave his reaction to the news of his sacking.
He said: “this is one of the saddest days of my career.”Eighteen months ago (when he was appointed) was the proudest day of my career and I was honoured to be the England head coach and for 18 months I’ve enjoyed every minute.
It is a sad day to have been relieved of my duties but I understand the decision of the FA.
With regret, unfortunately we didn’t qualify and we’ve come to this situation.
Brian phoned me this morning at 10.30 and told me after the meeting of the decision.
Obviously there’s going to be a clamour for a new head coach. The future is the future, all I can do is concentrate on getting over this huge disappointment and looking forward.
Although it is a sad day I will recover, bounce back and wait for my next challenge. I’m not one to lie on a beach.
I believe after 18 months I am a better coach than I was 18 months ago.
It was a failure but I will learn from that and move on.”

So there you have it. McLaren enjoyed ‘every minute’ of an 18month reign that has been a disaster, almost from day one. The former Middlesbrough coach was an unpopular choice to succeed Sven Goran Eriksson. The decision to appoint him was baffling given that he had been no.2 to the Swede in a long period of under-achievement and negative football.
For McLaren to say he enjoyed every minute is a ridiculous statement and simply him confirming what we’d all expected him to say. He simply shouldn’t have been enjoying his reign as coach. The results weren’t good, the performances were poor and he was constantly being criticised.
Still, the reported £2.5 million pay-off may have him feeling slightly better than England’s football fans this morning….